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The injured patients came from hamlets and settlements in the hills and valleys south of Traralgon.

The scale of the Gippsland fire, thought to have been started on Saturday near Glendonald Road in Churchill, possibly by a youth or youths, is vast. It has incinerated vast tracts of hills and gullies of the Strzelecki Ranges.

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The fire was so destructive and threatening that it took two days before ambulances could access Callignee and its surrounds, the worst hit area.

Earlier this week the Callignee district had an official death toll of 12, but authorities have since stopped releasing updated figures specific to regions.

The hospital's chief executive officer, Peter Craighead, said that apart from the serious cases transferred to Melbourne, patients treated by staff at the hospital had suffered minor burns, smoke inhalation, eye problems and other injuries.

While the bulk of those injured were local residents, the hospital also treated a couple of people who had been fighting the fires. This had been before the establishment of a first-aid centre at the firefighting staging post at the Churchill campus of Monash University.

"We have had approximately 11 homes lost by our staff, including two of our specialist doctors, and on Saturday we had a lot of staff who needed to go home to defend their properties," Mr Craighead said.

Road closures prevented a number of staff from reaching the hospital on Saturday and Sunday.

With increased demands on the hospital, many staff did double shifts, extended hours or came into work when they were not rostered on.

Mr Craighead has admired the hard work and generosity of hospital staff since the fire hit. "You really see how your staff can stand up, and it makes you pretty proud," he said.

As one of the biggest employers in this bushfire hit region with 1700 staff, it is not surprising that many have had their lives turned upside down by this fire. But fortunately for the hospital community, it is believed that no hospital staff have perished in the fire, despite the fact that many of them live in the once picturesque hills and gullies of the Strzelecki Ranges that have been devastated by fire.

With 850 employees the Latrobe City Council is also one of the region's biggest employers and employs people who have lost homes to the deliberately lit blaze. Excluding municipalities in Melbourne and Geelong, it is the third biggest municipality in Victoria, after Bendigo and Ballarat, with a population of 72,000.

Council CEO Paul Buckley said that the region had suffered significant property and community infrastructure losses, as well as a substantial number of deaths in the Churchill fire. And this followed a large number of property losses in the recent Boolarra fires.

''We've had a number (of staff) directly impacted, that is loss of homes, and or other buildings on their properties. Thankfully we've had no staff fatalities that we are aware of at this stage,'' Mr Buckley said.

''We employ about 850, so they've all got some connection with family or friends that have been directly impacted by these events over the last couple of weeks,'' he said.

City of Latrobe Mayor Lisa Price said locals were hurting and in shock. ''I think we are all struggling with what's happened. And I think the worst part is that we don't know the extent of the damage yet, the loss of life. And I think that till we get to that point, where we know exactly what we're dealing with, people are just wondering what to do,'' she said.